Watson 1 Parker Watson Mark Katz MUSC 143 001 10 September 2007 Imagine Imagine , originally a song by world-famous music artist John Lennon, was first released in 1971 on the B-side of the Imagine album. It was at the top of the charts in several countries and has remained a staple song of any iTunes music library. Many artists have created covers of this 3-minute classic in the last 36 years. A Perfect Circle, a band featuring Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, released its cover of the Lennon song in 2004 as the second track on the 12-track album eMOTIVe . Though these songs are essentially they same song, as both are arranged in verse-chorus form and have similar lyrics, they are two completely different entities with two different musical messages. In the 1960s in America, there was much civil unrest and revolution transpiring. The Women’s Rights Movement was spilling over into the 1960s from the previous era. The Civil Rights Movement was also going on throughout the decade. In 1962, prayer was outlawed in public schools. The Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis were also during the mid-60s. All of these political and social movements had created a much different place by the time the 1970s began to roll around. Much of this change resulted in a response from the people, including musicians. When reading or hearing Lennon’s Imagine lyrics, it is easy to find the historical context within the words. Lines like “Imagine there’s no countries; it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion, too. Imagine all the people living life in peace,” are lyrical evidence of the

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